While driving through the suburbs of Mount Prospect, IL one Sunday afternoon about 5:30PM, I passed a large estate sale on my way to eat dinner at a friend's house. Even though we were running a bit late, I did spy a few oversize paintings leaning against the bushes and decided to pull over and make a quick check of the offerings. Although most of the larger paintings were mass-produced landscape atrocities, I did find a stack of smaller paintings in a box along with a few larger items outside the box. Flipping through the paintings my jaw dropped lower and lower - whoever this artist was, I had discovered a treasure trove of goodies! Closer investigation revealed that the works were all done by Helen Decca circa 1968 - 1970 and that each piece was priced at the princely sum of $1.00.

There were quite a few Decca pieces other than the nine pieces above, but for some reason the larger paintings did not pack quite the wallop as the 9" x 12"s. Additionally, although quite interesting, some of the other pieces were done in either watercolor or gouache which did not have quite the same effect as the above acrylics. When I went to purchase the paintings, a member of Ms. Decca's family running the estate sale explained, "It's too bad you weren't here earlier; the REALLY good pieces sold very early"!

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Gallery XV